All Great Stories start with a Kiss
by fawkestota
Summary: Lily and James, the parents of the famous Harry Potter, did not have quite the stress that Harry has grown up with. They don't fight evil wizerds or save the world every day. They just try to save themselves from falling for each other. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: A Bright and Shining Morning

The bright morning sun came in through the half open window. The birds could be heard chirping outside, welcoming the new day.  
  
Lily Evens did not feel like chirping. She was tired. She wanted to go back to sleep. She wished that those stupid birds would shut up all ready. Then, it dawned on her. Today was September 1st. She would finally be going back to Hogwarts today, after all those weeks of missing it. A bubble swelled in her throat. The birds chirping now became music to her ears.  
  
Leaping out of bed, she raced across the floor of her messy bedroom, ran through the door and- WHAM! Went running right into her sister. With a yell, both girls fell down on the floor, clutching their throbbing foreheads.  
  
"Would you watch where you're going!" snapped Petunia, feeling her head to see if she could feel a lump growing.  
  
"Sorry Tunie!" said Lily cheerful, getting up and reaching out a hand to help her sister.  
  
Petunia smacked her hand away. Getting to her feet, Petunia went into her room mumbling about stupid little sisters, and how unattractive lumps were. The last Lily saw of her sister was her red angry face slamming the door of her room.  
  
Lily raced across the rest of the hallway, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Mrs. Evens was already there, frying eggs and bacon.  
  
"Morning Mom!" chirped Lily as she yanked open the refrigerator door and began rummaging around for the orange juice.  
  
"Morning Sweetie!" said her mother "My your bubbly this morning!"  
  
"Well, Duh!" exclaimed Lily, "Why wouldn't I be happy about going back to school?"  
  
"What do you mean Hunny?" her mother asked, looking confused.  
  
"Well, its September 1st. I get on the train today. You know the big metal thing that takes you places?"  
  
Comprehension dawned on her mothers face. "Oh no!" she gasped, "I completely forgot!"  
  
"Forgot?" Lily gaped at her mother, "How could you forget when that's all I've been talking about for the past three weeks!"  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry dear." Exclaimed Mrs. Evens, "but your father and I are going to the Bar Association meeting the morning, and we really can't change our plans now. Oh well I suppose we can call a cab for you. I just hope that I have enough cash on me." Mrs. Evens thought that that settled the matter, and went back to cooking breakfast.  
  
Lily felt her happy bubble starting to deflate. Her mom had forgotten that she was leaving home today. That she wouldn't be seeing her youngest daughter for the next 3 months. Did she even care? No, I guess not. With that gloomy thought in her mind, she rose from the table to start packing her things.  
  
As Lily started going up the stairs Tunie was waiting on the bottom step with an evil smile slithering on her face  
  
"So" she whispered so that their mother couldn't hear. "Mom's forgetting about her little witch already," saying the word as if it were a curse. "Maybe next time she'll forget that you're even her daughter."  
  
Lily responded in appropriate Lily fashion. She kicked her sister in the shins, and then raced up the stairs, locking the door to her room. She could hear her sisters howling, and was sure that the neighbors could too. But even that thought did not console her as she felt the tears running down her freckled face. She turned to look in the mirror.  
  
She saw unhappy 13-year-old girl. Her red hair was still in tangles from the night before and her tiny little body looked even tinnier in her baggy pajamas. She looked nothing like her blond hair and blue-eyed mother and sister. The only thing that Lily had ever liked about her appearance was her eyes. They were a wonderful shade of jade green that sparkled when she was excited or angry. But even now, they simply looked sad and red from all that crying.  
  
A few minutes ago, Lily couldn't wait for the day to start. Now, all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed, and forget that the outside world existed. 


	2. Chapter 2: Heaving up and Falling Over

"20 pounds, ma'am."  
  
Lily was shaken from her skulking. She had been sitting in this smelly cab for so long she felt that she had been there her whole life. She wished that she had a broom with her now; it would have gotten her to Kings Cross in half the time.  
  
"Ma'am? We are holding up the traffic."  
  
With a woe begotten look on their faces, Lily and the cab driver hauled her enormous trunk and dropped it on the ground with a huge thunk.  
  
The driver looked just as depressed and unwanted as Lily felt. Lily thought to herself, this poor cab driver has probably only just started his day, which would consist of carting around annoying people all day, dealing with their moods, hard to reach destinations and troublesome pets. Lily looked down at her own pet her owl, Athena, who hadn't stopped cooing the whole trip. The driver never breathed a word of complaint. With a sudden burst of sympathy for the man whose life seemed so different from her own, she handed him the thirty pounds her mother had given her that morning.  
  
"Keep the change!" she chirped as she shouldered her backpack, grabbed her owl, and dragged her trunk over to the direction of Platform nine and three quarters.  
  
Lily breathed in the sights and sounds of the crowded train station. Everywhere she looked, she saw families returning from vacation, and children going off to school. She felt a pang in her chest when she saw one crying girl give her mother a hug goodbye, but she let the feeling pass. She wouldn't let herself be upset. After all, this place was the starting point of her new life. She would never let herself feel sad here.  
  
With a sigh, she bent down to pick up her trunk. It didn't budge. She tried again. Uh oh. With a huge heave she tried to lift it, but the resistance of the trunk was too much for her. With a yell, she went flying backwards over Athena's cage. The owl gave a loud squawk as Lily smacked bottom down onto the ground.  
  
"Hey, lil miss!"  
  
She felt someone pulling her to her feet. It was the cab driver looking more than a little amused. She looked quite the sight with all her belonging strewn out around her.  
  
"Sorry lil miss, I 'ope yer alright. I saw ye struggling with that there trunk and I decided to get out and gives ye a lil help."  
  
Lily's embarrassment over falling flat on her face in front of all the people in the train station started to evaporate when she saw the sincerity in his face. She brushed herself off and picked up Athena and her bag.  
  
"That would be great actually. This weighs a ton. Do you think you ca-" She barely finished her sentence when he had already boosted the trunk up into his arms, as if it were light as a feather. Then without even asking which platform she was going to he went straight towards the platform 9. She wondered how she was going to explain to him that he wouldn't be able to help her get it on the train when the most extraordinary thing happened. He started walking right towards the barrier. He was going to crash into it. Then suddenly, he was gone.  
  
Lily felt like her legs were stuck to the floor. This did not make any sense. How could a Muggle cab driver go through the barrier? Was it an accident? With a great effort, she unfroze her leg and walked up to the barrier into Platform 9¾.  
  
The cab driver was standing by the standstill waiting for her. He grinned when her goggle at him.  
  
"Eh there lil miss? Are ye all right?"  
  
Lily goggled at him some more "But how do you know about-?"  
  
"About which train ye were taking? With that owl where else would ye be going?"  
  
Lily continued to stare at him, enchanted by the fact that she was having a conversation with a Muggle cab driver on Platform 9¾.  
  
"Ah I see. Ye didn't think tat none of us normal folks knows about ye? Crazy girl! Ye can't expect something as huge as all this," he exclaimed indicating the train and all the students behind him, "To be kept a secret now can ye?" "No, I suppose not." Lily said.  
  
"Well alright then. Let's get going"  
  
Still feeling as if she was only half awake, Lily followed the cabby to the train where he shoved her trunk into the luggage bin. As he wiped off the sweat on his forehead he looked around longingly at all the kids getting onto the train. Lily got the distinct feeling that he wished he were going with them.  
  
The train whistle sounded, Lily looked up at this man who was really a stranger and had the sudden impulse to give him a hug. Instead she asked him what his name was. The cabby chuckled.  
  
"Thought ye'd never ask me. Me given name is Augustus. Bloody stupid name if ye ask me. I'm normally known as Gus. Ye'd best be getting on yer train miss Lily."  
  
Lily was about to turn to get into the car when she stopped suddenly. "How did you know my name?" she exclaimed. She heard the train whistle from the engine, but she ignored it. She was much more interested in this unpredictable man she had just met. He seemed to be full of surprises.  
  
"Its on yer trunk in plain sight ya goose." Gus said, laughing some more. "I may be pretty smart, but I'm no mind reader. So long Miss Lily"  
  
"Bye Gus!" she called as she hopped up onto the car.  
  
Gus stood at the platform waving until she was out of sight. Lily couldn't help feeling that there was something about Gus that was strangely comforting. For the second time that morning, she felt the excitement of the day bubbling up. As the train left behind the familiar streets of London, Lily couldn't wait until she found her friends and told them all about her strange meeting with a Muggle cabby. 


	3. Chapter 3: A Stiff Reunion

She didn't have to wait long. Almost as soon as she had found herself a seat, two figures came bounding into her compartment. All she saw was two pairs of excited brown eyes before she found herself slammed into the side of the compartment and engulfed in what some people might call a bear hug.  
  
"Get off me you psychos!" yelped Lily, nearly suffocating from the weight of her overeager friends.  
  
"Lily! Oh god I'm so excited to see you!" cried her friend Alice, "When we didn't see you at the station we thought you might have been sick or been run over by a car-re or whatever you call them..." And off she went babbling about the dangers of the Muggle world. Alice was well known for her ability to talk the ears of an elephant.  
  
"Lil, it's good to see you," breathed Emma, who looked as if she had just run a marathon, "Alice made me run all over trying to find you. How was your vacation?"  
  
Lily grinned. Her friends hadn't changed a bit. Emma and Alice were cousins and they looked so much a like that many people often mistook them for twins. Personality wise, they were complete opposites. Alice was the spunky, while Emma was much more quiet and reclusive. Yet they were so close they could have been attached at the hip.  
  
"It's good to see you both. You're so tan!" Lily was always jealous of her friends' gorgeous skin while hers remained perpetually white.  
  
"Oh I know! Daddy took us to the coast last week and it was absolutely fabulous! You should have come with!" chattered Alice, "Amanda and Sophie are up at the front, come on!"  
  
Lily grimaced, "Um, yeah sure ok." She thought it was much too early in the morning to deal with Amanda and her millions of stories of all the hearts she had broken this summer. But she followed her chattering girlfriends to where Amanda sat doing her nails with Sophie who was reading a magazine and chewing gum loudly. Alice and Emma speed away as if on wings to say hello to all their other friends. Lily was about to follow them when Amanda beckoned her in the compartment.  
  
"Lily doll it's so good to see you, sit down!" Amanda said, patting the seat next to her, "I was just telling Sophie here all about this adorable Russian boy I meet at the beach..."  
  
Sophie rolled her eyes at Lily had already stopped paying attention. Did she really have to sit for hours listening to her? Amanda was great and all, but she was like medicine, she had to be taken in small portions otherwise you could make yourself really sick.  
  
It seemed like she wasn't the only one who thought that.  
  
"Hey Amanda, lay off a little, Lily just got here," muttered the voice of Sophie from behind her Sugar magazine. Lily gave her a grateful look, and Sophie gave her an almost nonexistent wink.  
  
Amanda pouted for a moment at being interrupted during her story. But she regained herself quickly and said to the group, "Hey, where are our favorite boys?" carefully not looking at Lily, "Especially that sexy James."  
  
Lily closed her eyes. Urgh. She didn't want to think about him. She hoped he wouldn't come around here anytime soon. She could only take so much cockiness in one room, and Amanda had more than enough. The door to the compartment banged open.  
  
"Hey who let these dazzling beauties onto this train?"  
  
Too late.  
  
A tall, black haired boy leaned into the room grinning from ear to ear. When he saw Lily glaring back at him, he grinned even wider.  
  
"It's the Lovely Evens herself," proclaimed James Potter. He came into their car and squashed himself between Lily and Amanda, putting his arms around them. He leaned over to Lily and said in a deep mocking voice, "Did ya miss me gorgeous?"  
  
Lily shrugged off his arm. "Yeah, about as much as I'd miss gum in my hair." She shot at him, moving over to sit across from him.  
  
James grasped his heart with his free hand, while one arm was still around Amanda. He faked a look of deep hurt. "Ouch, looks like your summer hasten soften your red head temper."  
  
Amanda poked James in the side. She batted her eyes at him, "What about me, did you miss me too."  
  
James smiled, "Words cannot express how much I longed to see you." Amanda smiled coyly. When she turned her head, James made a gagging motion that the rest of the girls could see. Everyone laughed but Lily. As much as she enjoyed making fun of Amanda, she never let herself laugh at James' arrogant jokes. Well, almost never.  
  
Amanda looked over to catch the joke. Lily almost felt sorry for her for a moment. Amanda turned back to keep flirting with James, and he responded like any 15 year old boy. Lily looked out the window and groaned inwardly. This was going to be a really long ride. 


	4. Chapter 4: Home Sweet Home

Lily checked her watch. She still had at least an hour to go until she got to Hogwarts. She'd been riding in the compartment with James and Amanda flirting for over an hour. She thought she was going to scream with frustration. Were they ever going to shut up?  
  
"So James you just HAVE to tell us about your trip to France. You got so fit and tan over there."  
  
Lily couldn't take it any longer. She jumped up from her seat hurriedly explaining that she was going to get some water. She breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door behind her. Anything to get away from Mandy the annoying flirt and James the cocky basterd. Lily was about to walk away from the compartment when Sophie pushed open the door and shut it with a bang.  
  
"There is no way that I am going to stay in there by myself if I don't have to. Honestly the girl's got no shame. Although, you should have seen poor James' face when you rushed out of there like that. He looked so pathetic, longing after you with Amanda hanging onto his arm, trying to play with his hair. God, I wish I'd had a camera."  
  
Lily forced a laugh. Playing with his hair? How desperate was Amanda? I mean sure, when his hair was all messed up like he always wore it, it was incredibly sexy bu-.  
  
Lily stopped dead in her tracks. WHAT was she thinking?!? James Potter, sexy? The thought was so gross that she felt like puking all over the hallway. And yet she couldn't get the picture out of her mind. She needed something or someone to distract her before she went absolutely insane.  
  
Fortunately for her, the perfect person was beckoning Sophie and her to their compartment. Remus Lupin was leaning out of one of the compartments, motioning for Sophie and Lily to join him. Gratefully, Lily rushed over and gave him a quick hug and a kiss. This boy was like the twin brother she never had. He always listened to all of her problems, no matter how insanely stupid. He was just what she needed right now.  
  
"Where are you guys running from so fast?" Remus asked, giving Sophie a quick hug, before leading them back to his seats. Lily could see piles of books and pieces of parchment strewn out over the floor. It seemed that Remus was getting an early start on this years work. Just the thought of spending her last hours of summer doing work was enough to make Lily's already queasy stomach even sicker.  
  
"Lily's hiding from James again," Sophie mocked, "You know she can't stay in the same room as him without getting weak in the knees." She immediately sat down and began reading her magazine again.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes at her, and turned back to face Lupin. To her surprise, he was not joining Sophie in making fun of her. Instead he had a look on his face that was unreadable, almost sad, something rare to find on her sweet best friend.  
  
"Remus? Are you alright?"  
  
Remus shook himself and smiled down at Lily. At almost 6 feet tall, it was still unnerving for Lily to look up at him. He used to be nearly half her height, but had sprung up during their last year. He sighed and sat down next to where Sophie was lounging. Confused, Lily sat down across from them. Even the uncomfortable silence that followed was better than the sitting and listening to James talk for hours on end.  
  
Good luck never lasts long.  
  
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," James exclaimed cheerfully as he bounded into the room. He plopped himself down onto the seat next to Lily, completely ignoring her, but making no effort to give her any room on the crowded seat. "Have any of you seen Sirius around lately? He's supposed to help me out with something."  
  
Lily couldn't even begin to fathom what those two boys had up their sleeves. Nothing could she was sure.  
  
"Now, don't look your nose down on us yet Evens. We are just trying to decide what the best trick to play on Amanda tonight is. She deserves something good after all of her talking that I endured like a good sport. No thanks to you two, abandoning me like that."  
  
Lily laughed in spite of herself. When he wasn't an obnoxious flirty know-it-all, James could actually be a really good time.  
  
"And just what, Mr. Potter, did you two, dare I say innocent, schoolboys have in mind."  
  
"I am always in favor of the old 'stealing all her underwear and hanging them on the suits of armor' routine. McGonagal still hasn't figured out how we can get up to the girls rooms."  
  
Lupin joined in with their laughing this time. "Wouldn't it be quite the shock for her to find that her golden girl Lily Evens was the fiend behind all of Sirius and James rampaging through the girls dormitories," he teased, punching Lily lightly on the arm.  
  
Lily grinned and made an exaggerated shushing movement. "Don't you two go ruining it for me." She exclaimed dramatically, "I have my reputation to uphold."  
  
Their laughing brought in another unexpected guest. A big dark haired boy flung himself, literally, into the compartment, pulling the rest of them down into a heap on the floor. He gave Lily, Sophie and even James and exaggerated kiss on the cheek.  
  
"James is that you?" Sirius grinned his evil smile at the rest of them. "I thought I smelled something disgusting over here. Evens, how've you been?"  
  
Lily couldn't help laughing hysterically. Looking around at the crazy people she had come to call her best friends, she realized exactly they were the things that really made her miss Hogwarts. 


	5. Chapter 5: An Unexpected Arrival

As they were all leaving the train, they noticed that most of their fellow students were not looking eagerly towards the castle and dinner, but to two figures coming out of the last car on the train. Lily could barely make out what all of the kids were saying,  
  
"Did you see them?"  
  
"Omigod, He's GORGEOUS! How's my hair look?"  
  
"She's so tall, are they all that gigantic?"  
  
Emma and Alice rushed up to the group, completely winded.  
  
"Guess what? Do you see those two kids over there? They're transfer students from America!"  
  
"What?" Lily whirled around to face her breathless friends, "How do you know?"  
  
"Amanda went up and started talking to the boy as soon as she saw how amazingly hot he was," explained Alice, "he told her his name is Mark, and now shes making friends with his sister, Caitlin. He's got the cutest New Yorker accent ever! Omigod, he's looking over here!"  
  
Lily glanced behind her. Mark was looking over at them with interest, but upon seeing them turn to him, he quickly began talking to the tall girl beside him who could only be his sister. They both had blond hair and blue eyes, and from what Lily could tell from the creases in Mark's shirt, he was incredibly... fit.  
  
Feeling her gaze on him, Mark looked back over at Lily. Caught watching him, she gave him a smile and a little wave. A relieved look washed over at his face as he returned her small smile and then was reluctantly pulled away by his sister.  
  
"Oh great," exclaimed Emma behind her, "Now they've gone gooey-eyed for each other. Leave it to Lily to snatch the only decent looking guy who ever came to this school."  
  
"What do you mean? I wasn't watching anybody!"  
  
"Oh me thinks thou doest protest too much." Quoted Sirius, "That's ok Lil, I completely understand. I was just examining his very good-looking sister. You know American girls can't resist an English accent."  
  
He then continued to explain to Lily all of the wonderful things he'd heard about American witches while the group walked over to the carriages. They reached the carriages and Lily was about to follow Sirius and Lupin into an empty one, when she felt a small tap on her shoulder. She turned around and found herself looking up into a pair of very blue eyes.  
  
"Hi, I'm Mark. Is this carriage full?" 


	6. Chapter 6: Green

AN: Please, PLEASE nobody take personally the jokes I make in these last few chapters. I joke because I love, that includes the English and Americans, specifically New Yorkers. I wouldn't make the jokes if I didn't know you had a good sense of humor. Thank you for R/R.  
  
"Uh, no come on in there's plenty of room," said Lily as she watched in amazement as Mark held the door of the carriage open for her, and followed her inside.  
  
The carriage door closed itself, and they started off towards the castle. Lily glanced out the window at the passing trees to avoid looking in the carriage where Sirius and Lupin were talking under their breath and Mark was looking uncomfortably at his sneakers.  
  
"So," Sirius casually remarked after a pause, "You're from American, right?"  
  
Mark looked up at Sirius and nodded.  
  
"Where did you go to school?" asked Lupin.  
  
"The Salem School for Magical Minds," replied Mark.  
  
Lupin made a remark that he had heard that was a really good school. Then there was silence and Sirius, content that they had done their part of welcoming the new student, went back to talking with Lupin.  
  
Lily glanced over at Mark. He looked so depressed that she wanted to instinctively hug him. Instead, she decided to try talking to this shy student.  
  
"So, you lived in the Salem?" she asked Mark.  
  
"Um.... No, we actually lived in New York, but my mom wanted us to go to the Salem. Which makes sense seeing as the school near our house is called 'Magic for Misfits.'"  
  
Lily laughed, "I don't blame her."  
  
Mark grinned sheepishly at her, not used to people laughing at his jokes. Lily saw Sirius looking back and forth from her to Mark, and raised his eyebrow at her. Lily went back to her conversation with Mark.  
  
"Why did you're family move?" she asked him.  
  
"Well, my dad's business moved over here, he's a Reggie-"  
  
"A what?"  
  
"A Reggie, you know, he doesn't do magic." Mark explained.  
  
"Oh I see." Lily said, "We call them Muggles here. Both my parents don't do magic either."  
  
"Really? Wow, you must be really good to get in here. At my old school you had to do all sorts of stuff, if both your parents were Reggies. They're really rare where I come from."  
  
Lily talked to Mark the whole way over to the castle about his old school and the trip over here. He was in the middle of telling her the funniest story about how his wand made the security officers at the airport take him in for questioning until the authorities came from the Ministry of Magic. Apparently, he said trying to contain his laughter, they thought that he belonged to some kind of Gothic cult. They were both doubled over in laughter as they exited the carriage walked toward the main entrance.  
  
"Wow," Mark whistled as he looked up at the castle, his shyness forgotten back at the train. "This is your school? I saw the pictures but I thought it was some kind of hoax. Our school was in a swamp!"  
  
"I thought as much," said a voice behind them. "That is, when I heard you were from America."  
  
Lily groaned inside. Why did he have to come and spoil a perfectly good moment? And why was he being such an ass, just to make a joke? She turned around and faced James. To her surprise, he did not look like he was looking for a laugh.  
  
"Have a cozy ride their Evens?" he asked nastily. "Who's the boyfriend?"  
  
Lily turned red as a beet. "This is Mark, he's new here. You would have noticed that if you ever pulled your head out of your ass." She turned to Mark, "Welcome to Hogwarts and I hope I see you later." With that she walked towards the castle.  
  
Mark looked uncomfortably at James who was glaring at Lily's back. James looked over at Mark, muttered a sorry for the joke, and ran after Lily.  
  
Sirius came up behind Mark and patted his back, "Don't take him personally mate, He's so green he could blend into the grass."  
  
"What?"  
  
Sirius took a picture out of his pocket and gave it to Mark. They both looked down at three people in bathing suits sitting at the edge of a lake, the girl in the middle with her arms around the two boys. They were all kicking their feet and the boy with the crazy black hair kept splashing the girl with the pretty green eyes.  
  
"That was the first week of Hogwarts, when me and Lily and James first meet each other. They were so close at first; it was like pulling two pieces of tape apart to get them away from each other. They haven't been that close since James started to have crush on her. "  
  
Sirius took the picture back and stuck it in his pocket. "I'm gonna give this to him or her as present. I haven't been able to decide who needs it more. But enough old romance. Have you ever seen a larger collection of beautiful women in one building?"  
  
And with that Sirius lead Mark up to Hogwarts. 


End file.
